Lutheran (EL
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Happy Anniversary /sarc
Be rooted in Christ!
Posted on 09/12/2010 2:04:21 PM PDT by rhema
The first departure wave from the ELCA took place immediately prior to the ELCA’s organization in 1988 and lasted through July 2009. According to the ELCA’s own statistics, 737 congregations were lost to the ELCA between 1988 and 2008. The loss of membership during that same period was 654,161.
The second departure wave from the ELCA began in August 2009, following the Churchwide Assembly’s vote to permit practicing homosexuals to be placed on its clergy roster. Since that fateful decision in August 2009, an estimated 400 congregations have successfully taken their first and/or second votes to leave. These congregations that have left or are in the process of leaving represent a net loss of over 240,000 members. This figure does not include the thousands of ELCA members who have left to start new Lutheran mission congregations, nor does it include the thousands who withdrew on their own as a direct result of the 2009 decision. The full extent of ELCA’s loss may not be known for years, but it is significant.
There are established ELCA congregations that may not survive because so many members have chosen to leave the denomination. Even now, congregations are being disbanded and their property sold. Some congregations where the vote to leave failed, often by the slimmest margin, have reported a 25-35 percent drop in both attendance and giving.
ELCA members and congregations need to know the Lutheran Church is alive and well outside the ELCA, where the Word of God is both believed and honored. Those choosing to leave the ELCA have many choices.
Congregations and members who are waiting for the ELCA to change its policy of accepting practicing homosexual clergy should realize it is not going to happen. ELCA members may either remain and give financial and tacit approval of their church’s unbiblical theology and practices, or they can follow the instructions of Scripture and unite with a church body that rightly teaches and upholds the Word of God. The choice has never been as clear! “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14).
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Happy Anniversary /sarc
Be rooted in Christ!
My church left.
As someone that works with ELCA members, I have found three types of ELCA members: The biggest group is composed of those that have a loyalty to the church’s property. They care little about doctrine, but they do care about paying the bills. The second group are those that are in love with various social programs. They care little about doctrine, but they do love to socialize. The third group are the feminists. They care little about doctrine, but they do like to play pastor.
The only thing ELCA cares about is that they take their wallets with them. The whores and homosexuals who have seized ELCA care nothing for those who built and nurtured the church, and its predecessors.
What the elca is engaged in is the equivalent of a diseased person excising the healthy parts of its anatomy.
Here in the UP of Michigan there Fortun Lake Bible Camp has been decreasing in its activities for the youth in the church. Oddly this summer Fortune Lake Bible Camp, had a series of marketing schemes in sports activities for 50.00 sessions. the camp grounds were unused this year. there are no longer the weekend summer series of music programs. ELCa churches membership is dropping here in the UP of Michigan. other chrches in the area are growing, and the other bible camps are gaining in people attending their programs. It is sad to see the churches that were ALC that joined with ELCA are basically skeleton churches, only the young socially minded are part of the church. ELCA is going the way of the Episcopal church in this area - soon to close its doors. not part of ELCA, never part of it, just watching a church body moving away from Christ towards the social gospel. Doctrine is essential. Liberalism is a dying movement that will take many things down with it.
**The second departure wave from the ELCA began in August 2009, following the Churchwide Assembly’s vote to permit practicing homosexuals to be placed on its clergy roster. Since that fateful decision in August 2009, an estimated 400 congregations have successfully taken their first and/or second votes to leave. These congregations that have left or are in the process of leaving represent a net loss of over 240,000 members. **
Where will they go, and when will they come back to the truth of God?
Truly sad.
I do not see it as sad at all. It is a clear signal that many believers have been the crab in the slowly warming pot for a long time until this finally boiled over and woke them (us) up. I am (was) one of them. It is sort of like the RINO thing, we let these people creep into the party.
I could not believe the ELCA would allow such a thing even though I knew there was a faction pushing for it. Now the ELCA can suffer and wither away. On to the Missouri Synod, which I made fun of for years, mostly as satire passed down from my parents. This crap that is occuring is a war against Christianity in our church just as Islam is at war with everything.
Like you, I think it was hard to believe that the ELCA would approve ordaining gays. In Jan. 2008, I decided to join a Missouri Synod church. In March ‘08, my dad (a retired ELCA pastor who joined a Missouri Synod chuch) told me that the ELCA sexuality taskforce recommended that the ELCA not ordain gays or hold gay weddings. I thought that was great news, and I decided to return to the ELCA. In Nov. ‘08, I joined an ELCA church. When I heard the depressing news, in Aug. ‘09, I didn’t want to change churches, again. I got married that month, and my wife and I like our pastor and many members of that church.
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